2024-05-21 · tonnes e-waste generated (2022)
Most e-waste is not recycled
Phones and laptops pile up. Formal recycling captures a fraction — the rest is stored, dumped, or burned.
Most of the world's e-waste is never formally recycled. Of the 62 million tonnes generated in 2022, just 13.8% is documented as recycled. The other 86.2% is landfilled, hoarded, or handled informally — stored, dumped, or burned. Every retired phone and laptop lands on one side of that divide.
1 cell = 62 thousand tonnes e-waste generated (2022) (0.1% of annual e-waste) · 1,000 cells
Context
The UN Global E-waste Monitor 2024 is the source for this grid: 62 million tonnes of e-waste were generated worldwide in 2022, and 13.8% of that total is documented as recycled. The monitor's headline collection/recycling rate is roughly 22% — still leaving most discarded devices outside formal systems.
The 86.2% outside formal documentation is not a single fate: some devices sit hoarded at home, others are landfilled, dumped, or burned through informal channels. For every tonne documented as recycled in 2022, more than six tonnes took one of those paths.
UN Global E-waste Monitor 2024: ~22% collection/recycling rate.
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Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2024-05-21-ewaste-mountain